The Efficient Eight

[Wrestleknownothing]

As anyone who has paid attention to my posts knows, there are a couple of things I hate for their laziness. The generic claims of ducking and stalling. Here we will ignore the former and focus on the latter.

I loooooove @pmilk's posts on strategy. After all one man's strategy is another man's stalling. And this can be very tribal. All you need to do to see that is read some of the posts on HR by their fan parody account Ironbird. A recent perfect example is yesterday he complained that Woods would have won by more if the opponent hadn't stalled. In the same post he referred to Arnold's "tuff ride/mat returns to wear a guy down and kill some clock". You know because one is clearly stalling, but the other is strategy. Blah, blah, blah.

Digging through @grogs84 data for the 1988 to 2021 NCAA tournaments I thought I would find the wrestlers who won a title while scoring the fewest points. To do this I narrowed it down to wrestlers who won all of their matches by decision on their way to a title. Let's call them the Efficient Eight (really 10 with ties, but I do love alliteration).

Why score any more than you need to? It's not like you can use those extra points in later matches. Conserve energy. Don't let 'em see your moves on tape. Good luck scouting all my moves when I only use one per match, if that many. Now that is just smart wrestling.

The heavies are, um, heavily represented with 6 of the 10, but it is a middleweight who shall lead them all. While it saddened me to see that no one had won five straight 1-0 matches in OT, Jason Tsirtsis at 149 in 2014 came closest, having won his 5 matches 4-1, 4-3, 2-1 (OT), 2-1 (OT) and 3-1 (OT) for a 15 point total (only 12 in regulation time, awesome).

 

Does anyone know of any wrestlers pre-1988 or post 2021 to score fewer than the world's most efficient wrestler**?

*Ok, Ten, so The Taut Ten?

** Guinness verification pending.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

12 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

As anyone who has paid attention to my posts knows, there are a couple of things I hate for their laziness. The generic claims of ducking and stalling. Here we will ignore the former and focus on the latter.

I loooooove @pmilk's posts on strategy. After all one man's strategy is another man's stalling. And this can be very tribal. All you need to do to see that is read some of the posts on HR by their fan parody account Ironbird. A recent perfect example is yesterday he complained that Woods would have won by more if the opponent hadn't stalled. In the same post he referred to Arnold's "tuff ride/mat returns to wear a guy down and kill some clock". You know because one is clearly stalling, but the other is strategy. Blah, blah, blah.

Digging through @grogs84 data for the 1988 to 2021 NCAA tournaments I thought I would find the wrestlers who won a title while scoring the fewest points. To do this I narrowed it down to wrestlers who won all of their matches by decision on their way to a title. Let's call them the Efficient Eight (really 10 with ties, but I do love alliteration).

Why score any more than you need to? It's not like you can use those extra points in later matches. Conserve energy. Don't let 'em see your moves on tape. Good luck scouting all my moves when I only use one per match, if that many. Now that is just smart wrestling.

The heavies are, um, heavily represented with 6 of the 10, but it is a middleweight who shall lead them all. While it saddened me to see that no one had won five straight 1-0 matches in OT, Jason Tsirtsis at 149 in 2014 came closest, having won his 5 matches 4-1, 4-3, 2-1 (OT), 2-1 (OT) and 3-1 (OT) for a 15 point total (only 12 in regulation time, awesome).

 

Does anyone know of any wrestlers pre-1988 or post 2021 to score fewer than the world's most efficient wrestler**?

*Ok, Ten, so The Taut Ten?

** Guinness verification pending.

1. I thought Woods won by tech? That is the joke, right?

2. When big guys fall on you, it hurts.  Don't give them many chances to fall on you.

[Wrestleknownothing]

7 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

1. I thought Woods won by tech? That is the joke, right?

2. When big guys fall on you, it hurts.  Don't give them many chances to fall on you.

As a fan parody account I read everything Ironbird says as a joke, but yes, he did complain about Woods' opponent stalling in a TF.

[ionel]

37 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

As anyone who has paid attention to my posts knows, there are a couple of things I hate for their laziness. The generic claims of ducking and stalling. Here we will ignore the former and focus on the latter.

I loooooove @pmilk's posts on strategy. After all one man's strategy is another man's stalling. And this can be very tribal. All you need to do to see that is read some of the posts on HR by their fan parody account Ironbird. A recent perfect example is yesterday he complained that Woods would have won by more if the opponent hadn't stalled. In the same post he referred to Arnold's "tuff ride/mat returns to wear a guy down and kill some clock". You know because one is clearly stalling, but the other is strategy. Blah, blah, blah.

Digging through @grogs84 data for the 1988 to 2021 NCAA tournaments I thought I would find the wrestlers who won a title while scoring the fewest points. To do this I narrowed it down to wrestlers who won all of their matches by decision on their way to a title. Let's call them the Efficient Eight (really 10 with ties, but I do love alliteration).

Why score any more than you need to? It's not like you can use those extra points in later matches. Conserve energy. Don't let 'em see your moves on tape. Good luck scouting all my moves when I only use one per match, if that many. Now that is just smart wrestling.

The heavies are, um, heavily represented with 6 of the 10, but it is a middleweight who shall lead them all. While it saddened me to see that no one had won five straight 1-0 matches in OT, Jason Tsirtsis at 149 in 2014 came closest, having won his 5 matches 4-1, 4-3, 2-1 (OT), 2-1 (OT) and 3-1 (OT) for a 15 point total (only 12 in regulation time, awesome).

 

Does anyone know of any wrestlers pre-1988 or post 2021 to score fewer than the world's most efficient wrestler**?

*Ok, Ten, so The Taut Ten?

** Guinness verification pending.

I'd appreciate seeing an adjusted table of only points scored in regulation by the NC.  Those extra period points really shouldn't matter.  

[jchapman]

Lowell Lang won 136 lbs in 1950 scoring 16 points.

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

6 minutes ago, ionel said:

I'd appreciate seeing an adjusted table of only points scored in regulation by the NC.  Those extra period points really shouldn't matter.  

Man, I would like that too. Alas, your author is too lazy.

[Wrestleknownothing]

6 minutes ago, jchapman said:

Lowell Lang won 136 lbs in 1950 scoring 16 points.

 

Those old brackets are tough for a couple reason. First, he only wrestled three matches, so his per match average was higher than any of our top 10 (5.33 vs 5.0 for 8, 9, and 10). Second, there was no overtime. He won the final on a ref's decision after being tied 2-2 at the end of regulation. The lack of OT puts a cap on scoring, just ask our hero, JT.

[CHROMEBIRD]

Jim Scherr, 1984. Quite the contrast from his twin brother Bill, who lit everyone up in his title run at that same tournament.

[Ohio Elite]

Not surprised Tsirtsis made the list..

[Wrestleknownothing]

4 minutes ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Jim Scherr, 1984. Quite the contrast from his twin brother Bill, who lit everyone up in his title run at that same tournament.

Love that one.

Jim goes Bye, 8-4, 6-3, 4-1, 3-2 National Champ - and his family says, "Why can't you be like your brother?"

Bill went 26-8, Pinfall, Pinfall, 20-6, 13-4. Scoered more in one match than Jim did in four.

[ionel]

17 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

Man, I would like that too. Alas, your author is too lazy.

I wonder if his laziness could be cured with an offer of a good bottle of bourbon or a new speedo as a Christmas present?  

[jchapman]

Dale Lewis 1961 UNL  13 total points, 5 of which were scored two OT periods from two different matches.

Edited November 20, 2023 by jchapman

[ionel]

5 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

Bill went 26-8, Pinfall, Pinfall, 20-6, 13-4. Scoered more in one match than Jim did in four.

Not to be the grammar police but you misspelled two words there, one of them twice.  

Edited November 20, 2023 by ionel

[Wrestleknownothing]

Just now, ionel said:

Not to be the grammar police but you misspelled 3 words there, one of them twice.  

"The most effective form of birth control is correcting someone's grammar"

-Demetri Martin

[Wrestleknownothing]

4 minutes ago, ionel said:

I wonder if his laziness could be cured with an offer of a good bottle of bourbon or a new speedo as a Christmas present?  

I think it is worth it to give it a try and see if it works.

[ionel]

Just now, Wrestleknownothing said:

"The most effective form of birth control is correcting someone's grammar"

-Demetri Martin

Maybe you still need to worry about birth control, I do not.

[Offthemat]

23 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

"The most effective form of birth control is correcting someone's grammar"

-Demetri Martin

Mess with my grammar and she’ll whop you. 

[Wrestleknownothing]

3 minutes ago, Offthemat said:

Mess with my grammar and she’ll whop you. 

I had to read that three times before I got it. Good one.

[WrestlingFan89]

Imagine that, 6 heavyweights and not one of them named Tony Nelson.

[11986]

Looking around at old brackets courtesy of wrestlingstats. 1988 Scott Turner scored 36 total so way too many for this exclusive club. What I found interesting is his cumulative margin of victory was 35, he only gave up 1 point. To the original poster, I guess this was extremely inefficient. With that kind of D he could have eased up and won every pre finals match 1-0. 

[CHROMEBIRD]

2 hours ago, jchapman said:

Dale Lewis 1961 UNL  13 total points, 5 of which were scored two OT periods from two different matches.

Wow! Does that make him the GOAT of stingy scoring? I've never heard of him, but that is impressive. What were the big differences in rules back then, aside from the lack of singlets?

I now have a new appreciation for scoring efficiency. I mean give me a shootout where both wrestlers open wide up and run up the score, but there's something to be said for the rare champ who puts up points like they're being taxed on them

[MPhillips]

12 minutes ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Wow! Does that make him the GOAT of stingy scoring?

Depends on matches wrestled right?

[Wrestleknownothing]

2 hours ago, jchapman said:

Dale Lewis 1961 UNL  13 total points, 5 of which were scored two OT periods from two different matches.

Nice. Of course, he only had four matches. WHICH IS EVEN MORE EFFICIENT. Kudos, Dale. We fellow loafers tip our hat.

[ionel]

2 hours ago, jchapman said:

Dale Lewis 1961 UNL  13 total points, 5 of which were scored two OT periods from two different matches.

Lockhart had 3 TB (coin flip), one OT and one regulation 3-2 match.  Appears he score 11 points in the 5 matches prior to OT or TB, while his opponents scored 10.  He did not waste points.  

[Wrestleknownothing]

11 minutes ago, ionel said:

Lockhart had 3 TB (coin flip), one OT and one regulation 3-2 match.  Appears he score 11 points in the 5 matches prior to OT or TB, while his opponents scored 10.  He did not waste points.  

Year? Weight? I demand details.